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Wednesday, 24 May 2017

INDIA LOST 35 SOLDIERS IN 17 YEARS OF PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

INDIA LOST 35 SOLDIERS IN 17
YEARS OF PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

CHANDIGARH: As many as 35 Indian
soldiers were killed in UN peacekeeping operations across the world during the
last 17 years. Most number of fatal battle causalities has been in Congo, with
the toll highest between 2010 and 2015. Bathinda-based RTI activist HS Grewal,
who procured the information under RTI Act, 2005, from the ministry of defense,
rued that many of these Indian soldiers killed abroad do not get the
recognition they deserve. While 17 Indian soldiers have died in Congo, there
have been 10 battle casualties in Sudan, five in Afghanistan and one each in
Ethiopia, Lebanon, Sudan and Israel.

India lost seven soldiers in the
UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in 2013. Five of them died in an ambush by
about 200 attackers near Jonglei State while escorting a UN convoy. The list of
deceased included Lt Col Mahipal Singh, Lance Naik Nand Kishore Joshi, Havildar
Heera Lal, Naib Subedar Shiv Kumar Pal and Havildar Bharat Sasmal.

In Congo, the causalties include
Indian troops deployed as peacekeepers in the UN Organization Stabilization
Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). In 2014, eight
Indian soldiers who died while serving in the UN peacekeeping operations were
posthumously awarded a prestigious UN medal for their courage and sacrifice in
the line of duty An Agra-based soldier, Gagan Punjabi was gunned down by a
group of 15 masked men in 2015 at a pub in Aru town of Congo, near the
Uganda-Congo border. He was shot while attending the birthday party of a local
resident in the eatery. He was part of the UN's MOVCON (movement-control)
mission.

India has been among the largest
contributors to UN peace-keeping operations and contributed more than 1,70,000
troops to 43 of the 68 UN peacekeeping missions since its inception over 60
years ago. Over the past few years, Indian soldiers have been deployed in 10
critical UN peacekeeping missions across the world including Haiti, Congo,
Golan Heights, Lebanon and Cote d'Ivoire.